page_title: Beaver Club
section_title: Traditions
hierarchical_section_title: Beaver Club / Traditions
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, governor of British North America
context_page_description: The Beaver Club was a gentleman's dining club founded in 1785 by the predominantly English-speaking men who had gained control of the fur trade of Montreal. According to the club's rules, the object of their meeting was "to bring together, at stated periods during the winter season, a set of men highly respectable in society, who had passed their best days in a savage country and had encountered the difficulties and dangers incident to a pursuit of the fur trade of Canada". Only fragmentary records remain of their meetings, but from these it is clear that the Beaver Club was "an animated expression of the esprit de corps of the North West Company". The men of the Beaver Club were the predecessors of Montreal's Square Milers.
context_section_description: At first, the nineteen incorporators of the Beaver Club maintained a rigid exclusiveness over its membership, but later their ranks were opened and the limit of membership was placed at fifty-five with ten honorary places. At the regular gatherings an opportunity was offered of introducing into society such traders as might from time to time return from the Indian country. Potential members were selected by ballot on the basis of their standing and character and then invited as a guest to one of the gatherings. Following the dinner, a vote was taken and only if approved of unanimously would they then be invited to join the Club. The vast majority of them were Highland Scots, but they were joined by French Canadians (the five most senior of the original members had been French Canadian), Englishmen, Irishmen and Loyalists, all "thoroughly cosmopolitan by taste and association".
  The first dinner of their season was held on the first Wednesday in December. Following that fortnightly meetings were held until April between private houses (notably at Beaver Hall, the home of Joseph Frobisher, whose dining table comfortably sat forty guests) and at various hotels and taverns in Montreal. These included the Mansion House Hotel and the City Tavern, both on Rue Saint-Paul; Richard Dillon's Montreal Hotel on the Place d'Armes; Palmer's Hummums and Tesseyman's.
  Records are scant, but the guests known to have attended included Lord Selkirk, General Sir Gordon Drummond, General Sir Isaac Brock, Washington Irving, General Sir Roger Sheaffe, Sir John Franklin, Thomas Moore, John Jacob Astor and Lord Dalhousie. The last named recorded in his diary: "Upon the whole I don't recollect having ever spent a more pleasant or more interesting day than that with the Beaver Club". In gratitude to member James Hughes, with whom he was staying with in Montreal, Dalhousie gave him a silver snuff box with gold trim, bearing the inscription: "The Earl of Dalhousie to James Hughes, Esq., in remembrance of the Beaver Club, May 24, 1824".
  The dinners commenced at 4:00 in the afternoon. Members arrived richly adorned in ruffles and a profusion of gold lace with knee-breeches above their gold-clasped garters and silver-buckled shoes. But, most importantly they wore the club's large gold medal with the inscription "Fortitude in Distress", that hung from a light blue ribbon around their necks.
  The start of the festivities were marked by the passing around of a calumet, followed by a speech or 'harangue' made by the evening's president. Toasts were then made, and there were always five to: The Mother of all Saints; the King; the fur trade in all its branches; voyageurs, wives and children; and absent members. Then, accompanied by Highland Pipers, on a dais of red velvet a flaming boar's head was brought into the dining room, a piece of camphor having been placed in its mouth before the grand entrance. The members and their guests were then permitted to pursue their own pleasures.
  Seated around a great mahogany table, servants plied the members in regular relays with luxuries from the east and the west, and costly delicacies from across the sea. The menu included country food such as Pemmican (brought from Saskatchewan), braised venison, bread sauce, "Chevreuil des Guides" (a stew), venison sausages, wild rice, quail and partridge "du Vieux Trappeur"; fish from the Great Lakes, pickled turnips, "Sweet Peace" applesauce, Atholl Brose, bear meat, buffalo tongue and bag pudding. This country food was served among the unfamiliar atmosphere of mahogany, crystal glass, crested silverware and soft candle glow. John Bigsby was told, that "on certain great occasions the last plate put on the table before each member held a cheque for a sum of money".
  After dinner, any previous formalities were laid aside as the men started to sing old voyageur songs and exchange tales about their perilous adventures in the old fur trading days. The festivities often ran into the early hours of the morning with the members dancing on the tables, re-enacting various canoeing adventures an
caption: In 1824, Lord Dalhousie wrote in his diary: "Upon the whole I don't recollect having ever spent a more pleasant or more interesting day than that with the Beaver Club"
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